The State of Living Alone in America: 2026 Report
- Living alone is now one of the most common ways to live in America.
- It is also one of the least measured, so we built the report we wished existed.
This report compiles the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, ranks every state, and adds two things you will not find in the census: the peer-reviewed research on what living alone means for health and safety, and original data from more than 14,000 real daily safety check-ins completed through AssureOkay over the past 12 months.
Journalists and researchers: you are welcome to cite any figure in this report. Please credit AssureOkay and link to this page. All third-party sources are listed in the methodology section at the end.
Key findings
- 38.3 million Americans live alone, 28.9% of all households, the highest number and share ever recorded (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey). The Bureau’s 2025 Current Population Survey already estimates 39.7 million, up from 6.9 million in 1960.
- Washington, D.C. is the solo-living capital of America: 47.0% of its households are one person. Among states, North Dakota leads at 34.1%. Utah has the lowest share at 20.7%.
- 15.8 million households are a single person aged 65 or older. In Maine and West Virginia, roughly 1 in 7 of all households is an older adult living alone.
- Living alone carries a measurable safety gap. Unwitnessed cardiac arrests have a 4.4% survival rate versus 15.1% when someone is present. Among the oldest adults who fall, 80% cannot get up on their own and 30% lie on the floor for an hour or more.
- People who check in daily are remarkably consistent. In our own data, 95.1% of scheduled check-ins are completed on time, half of all check-ins happen within 3 minutes of the scheduled time, and Monday is the most commonly missed day.